IF "ALL IS CHOSEN," WHY DID I PICK SUCH HARD ASPECTS?

Dell Horoscope article, published December 2001 by Judi Thomases

Afraid of those "nasty" hard aspects in your natal or future charts? As students, as soon as the mysteries of astrology's "malefics" are learned, it's pretty common to sink into self-pity while bemoaning one’s dreadful "fate." In fact, it's rare to find the astro-student who hasn't felt these stabs. And who amongst us (oh, come on, admit it!) hasn't looked at upcoming Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune or Pluto hurdles without at least a little foreboding? Even the most seasoned astrologers can quake in fearful anticipation of tomorrow's "doom" when the path ahead begins to look rocky. We're likely to start expecting the worst! Decades (if not, centuries) of focus upon concepts such as bad karma or divine retribution have left many of us with the perception that Earth-School is a hard place, full of challenge and suffering (and perhaps even punishment) through which all of us have to slog. But maybe the time has come to remember what's really occurring, to see a larger picture of what we've come here to do. Yes, there are negative formations in every horoscope. Yes, it's likely most of us will experience some amount of pain in our lives. Yes, these episodes can almost always be diagrammed astrologically. And no, there's no magic potion that will make it all better in an instant. There's work to be done here — work to delve deeply into our belief systems, to root and cleanse false notions and psychological potholes, and to learn new knowledge based on spiritual truths. (Does this sound like Pluto in Sagittarius to you? It sure does to me!) The work that needs to be done involves a complete change of perspective about who and what is creating our reality. As pilgrims of wisdom, we're on the threshold (new millennium) of tremendous transformation. In fact, we’re on the verge of realizing astrology's true goal — the end of suffering. Ultimately, we‘ll reach the understanding that all our hard aspects are self-chosen, and that we’ve done so to provide ourselves with lessons from which to grow ("grist for the mill"). We’ll come to realize that we can change our emotion even while we’re in the midst of the event (astrology is a particularly helpful tool here, since we can clearly see the negative/positive polarity of the experience as well as the beginning, middle and end). And we’ll know that free choice includes the choice to be joyful. "Pain and suffering are inevitable. Misery is optional." — Anonymous, found on the Internet To restate: as we look at our cosmological map and see the shoals of turbulence ahead, we can navigate better and better, traversing the difficulty not only with triumphant success over adversity...but with a growing realization that our inner attitude is re-mapping the geography even as we travel, and handing us the means to calm the waters! As Mme. Blavatsky's teachings put forth, the Path to Wisdom will lead to a transmutation of human consciousness, in the end abolishing the need to learn through suffering while attending Earth-School. Humanity, rather than being doomed to darkness, has just left the Kali Yuga (dark ages) and is on the upswing of the Great Cycles of Ages, entering the silver cycle (Satya Yuga) in which the spiritual brightness is increasing.

"The Adepts base their many-centuried Program upon making the Knowledge of the Universe and Man accessible and favorable towards all beings in order to liberate us from suffering, and consequently from 'ignorance and (spiritual) death'… Perhaps in the beginning of the new millennium, suffering will be overcome by such a large diffusion of the Knowledge that used to be called 'esoteric’." — Alexander Moryason, The Light Above the Universe (A dissertation on Mme. Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine) I’m one of those people who have a personal connection to the task of heralding the coming changes in astrology's role. As I've done in these pages earlier, and elsewhere, let me offer my credentials for its undertaking. Although I've been a professional astrologer for 25 years, my chart is more Neptunian than Uranian — that is to say, when you look at my natal horoscope the astrologer doesn't jump out at you, but the psychic does (Moon in Pisces H3, Neptune most elevated planet in H9 conjunct Node, Sagittarius rising, ruler of H9 — Mercury — conjunct Sun in H1, and ruler of MC in H12.) I recall the great astrologer Isabel Hickey discussing her students as falling into either of the two categories. Uranian folk are intuitive and "techie," receiving bolts of higher awareness (Aquarius) from the higher mind into the lower and processing higher mathematics as well, but Neptunian types such as myself process information in a more diffuse, feeling manner, and often talk about a knowing. Neptune is permeable, and thus emphasizes mediumistic abilities (the bridging, or permeation, of different realms). Since spirit is described as a realm of pure energy, it stands to reason that a Neptunian type can merge into that experience most easily. When the heavens set the stage for me, such a mediumistic bridging became possible, allowing me to act as a conduit (a channel) for messages and teachings from another, more elevated source — a source that has named itself The Brotherhood of Light Workers. I hear (Mercury, progressed into H3...) clairaudiently (...in Pisces) the answers to questions that clients or I pose; the answers that come from a spiritual source (Neptune in H9) are then relayed (nodal axis: H3 & H9) into my conscious mind (H3) as telepathic words (Mercury). With enough earth in my chart, I manage to remain pretty grounded during this exchange, which some of my friends have jokingly referred to as "logging on" to my cosmic "hotline." But jokes aside, the answers have been a remarkable source of clarity, of new perspective, and of an alteration of my world-view. I can honestly say that the very fiber of my being has been changing because of the wisdom that has been sent across in this fashion, and my desire to share such with the world has resulted in a compendium of these messages entitled A Curriculum for Handling Earth School. Nowadays, many channels such as myself are relaying to the world the same general concepts. As best I can, I want to use this forum to put together a lot of channeled snippets as they’d pertain directly or indirectly to our field of astrology, so as to help the reader gain this new perspective, not just to see his or her own aspects and transits in a new (liberating) light, but to change one’s approach to guiding clients or friends.

The Teachings IN GENERAL: HOW LIFE WORKS, HOW OUR ATTITUDE CREATES REALITY, HOW CHOICE & CHALLENGE CAN BEST BE HANDLED To summarize what I've been taught: See life as a game, the rules of which we are gradually learning. We come here to work towards perfection, but this work is never really completed. It’s an eternal game that’s played even in the spiritual realm – an endless effort to evolve. While struggling in this quest, people usually stumble painfully because of their human “clay feet.” Repeated stumbles are called hardship. But the soul is learning to separate each goal from the drive towards it, and learning what efforts along the way always produce failure instead of fulfillment. It’s like a dance, this game. We all play the same one. We try different forms to learn different lessons until there’s nothing left to learn here. Only then can we move on. Once you see this truth, you gain a realization about the game you’re playing: okay, maybe you’re currently outmaneuvered and losing, but you have strategies to hone and options to activate. It’s up to you to take action. If you’re stuck, remember that life’s just a game… and find your Go-Free escape card! Attitude truly is everything, and how we frame our experiences in our minds is how we'll create the reality we encounter. Life experiences only seem negative because that’s how we structure our ideas of them. However, if an experience is structured differently in our minds, its true purpose can be revealed. Whatever is causing us hurt, pain, wounding or difficulty is real for us, but within that reality there is also the possibility of wellness and happiness. That’s because our reality about a situation depends on what we choose to feel about our troubles. If we can select from every possibility in life, then even during our worst moments we have the freedom to choose what we’ll feel from everything that can possibly be felt. Because we always have freedom of choice, we can approach our problems in a different way: we can choose to be joyful within our fear, or to be light within our pain. By approaching problems like that, we can stay high, letting nothing bring us low. You can create a little miracle next time you encounter something “negative.” Whatever your crisis, change your feelings about it. However it’s defined – gloomy, fearful, depressing, pressured – let yourself feel the opposite way. Let yourself feel bright, optimistic, upbeat and loose about it. Turn your downs to ups! Then sit back and watch what happens.

Every single thing that we experience is a choice we've made on a soul level in order to learn and grow into wisdom. The most profound challenges represent the deepest soul lessons that we’re gaining from the experience of taking form as 3-dimensional people living on planet Earth. Emotional reactions are the key. If we can figure out the lesson while we're in its midst, we can transmute its emotional impact. Your life is a path you’ve chosen. It’s like a play, or performance. Included in its script is all the wounding – of family, friends, lovers, etc. – comprising the central dilemma against which the action takes place and the growth is mapped. You have cast yourself into the tantalizing job of actor, to which you must give your full attention. While you (and everyone else) remain stuck in your roles, you can’t see that you also wrote the darn movie! Not only are you the actor in your own creation, but you are also part of a higher creation. You’re not just a lone participant in a cosmic tale of woe… you’re the vehicle for spirit’s intentions too (“the lighted core of our work” [2/11/98]). If you can step back a bit during the next crisis scene, even just once, you might be able to see yourself identified with spirit’s purpose. You might be able to switch from being the bit player to become the Director, changing the course of the action from the way other players see it to the way spirit would create it. The trick is to envision your future the same way you’d write a novel or a movie script. Even if you don’t yet see the finished result, you can shape each part as you go, erasing fuzziness, mistakes, doubt, and difficulty while making sure to add luck, flow and coincidence. Clarity and focus will increase as you go. As the artist-creator, be sure to include a glowing ending surmounting an exciting storyline. That’s how you’ll know that you’re truly the Creator of your own life. Remember the movie, "The Witches of Eastwick"? In it, Susan Sarandon's character falls off the balcony, headed for sure destruction. Her sister witches, played by Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer, yell at her to "Laugh! Laugh!" as she's falling, and quickly she remembers the rules of their reality: it's just an illusion, a game (although it's awfully scary at the moment). So she starts laughing and laughing, and right away she stops falling and begins floating downwards, all fears gone, all joy reinstated. The three witches have beaten the devil at his own game! (And we all know that the devil represents the ponderous power of all that is bad, negative, and evil in our lives.) Some Specifics ASTROLOGY’S ROLE Insights have been given regarding astrology's role in general, and regarding some specifics about planets and signs. Astrology (that is, the looking toward the stars for guidance) is depicted as that which gives the broader perspective onto physical existence…

Each person’s story of being is the story of Genesis, the cosmic story – birth and rebirth. Again and again, finding oneself in a form, one rediscovers freedom within that entrapment by remembering one’s true spiritual nature, identifying with the stars as points of light and expansive freedom until we reach liberation and joyful exuberance. Let that always be the journey. …and that which helps us navigate through our emotional storms: Let’s consider an image now: a calm field of plasma flows in a stable and simple pattern. Soon an emotion disrupts it, like a projectile rocketing through, causing waves and ripples. Other bombardments occur too, so that the various disturbances impact upon each other. The entire plasma field has become storm-tossed, torrential and wildly out of control. It’s difficult to navigate through it with any degree of equanimity. If the plasma field were an ocean, and you were inside a little vessel trying to handle these great waves, the stormy emotional weather would be very difficult to manage. From the higher perspective, there are multitudes of little vessels desperately struggling to navigate through the turmoil but so lost inside their shells that they’re unable to see how they’ve created the turbulence upon each other! As long as we’re using a metaphor of naval maneuvering, here’s a solution along those lines: To ease the pain of trying to hold the vessel steady in wild stormy waves, think about the history of seafaring. Look to the stars! Navigate by setting your course upon the stars, focusing on distant goals and plotting angles. Through the patches of heavy seas, keep your prow directed forward and your engine revving, but ease off on the throttle because speed destroys whereas patience rewards. Storms, therefore, can be navigated with wise, calm foreknowledge and without fearful anxiety when you use your wisdom as true ballast, and the stars as true guides out of emotional breakers and into calmer waters. Many messages were given in which, in answer to both personal queries and general themes, material was presented that touched upon the planets (especially the five biggest "troublemakers" — Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Mars), showing new ways to see their impact. Instead of the usual negative interpretations of various hard aspects, here are examples of more positive framing to help us learn astrology's deepest guidance. PLUTO: CRISIS, PRESSURE, INTENSE EMOTIONS, DEATH & TRANSFORMATION Negative Pluto is typically defined as the deep, buried, or hidden crisis, centering perhaps around a death or monetary problem, and causing emotional pressure and stress leading to a transformation. Here are some very different views of hard Plutonic aspects (and keep in mind that positive Pluto usually means empowerment): About a money problem, revealing its true underpinnings: Your current financial and other everyday problems are difficult but, from the spiritual perspective, is not the real issue. Their meaning, from this view, is to present to you a shadow or illusion of what’s genuinely important. Have no doubt that you will be brought into, through, and out of crisis, ultimately becoming stronger for it. (Nor does it matter

if you do doubt! Your life-plan will be accomplished anyhow, because that’s what’s written in the stars.) Your fears and worries, apparent to your spiritual guides, are what will propel you into rearranging your life. Goals of security – either financial or emotional – need to be defined, realized, and locked down. New effort as well as new awareness will be the building blocks. This is difficult but ultimately rewarding work. About a family problem, advising how to negotiate emotions, and where that will lead: Emotional storms are clouding your thinking once again. You must recognize when emotions interfere with your creativity. Pluto square to your water Moon equals emotional blockage due to women and family, can’t you see that? Avoid remaining in negative emotional energy – your daylight is waiting behind every storm. Just stay on a level field and don’t enter the water because it will sap your will and your strength. You have chosen to learn and master a new power, and this is why you’re experiencing the present struggles. The time has come to realize this: power comes from stabilizing emotions. About stressful times in general, showing such in a different light: Periods of pressure can be handled by realizing that you desired such. Pressure keeps you contained and focused. Difficult trials are actually stimulating adventures, and strengthen your resolve to reach your goal. About the Plutonian theme of death and transformation – a whole new world message: The single most important awareness being brought into today's world is that there is NO DEATH!! If death existed, how could spiritual voices be heard, how could the channeling of higher messages be occurring? The time has come to know that the very concept of Death is being transformed. Life, not the physical kind that’s known and understood, but of an eternal nature, is unending. The crucial point is simple: if the age-old concept of death were to stay the same, so would the fear of it. That’s why spiritual guides must now spread the word that the old notion of Death must die! A new understanding must replace it, to strip away its fearful quality and define it anew. Death needs to be seen merely as a passage, a change or transformation from one state into another state that’s quite real, enjoyable, and alive… and a place where even humor remains. Furthermore, the spiritual realm needs to be understood as the place where you, the individual, go when you transform from the physical back into incorporeal awareness. "Death, be thee no longer fearsome! We are calling all to this new awakening. It is the horn of Gabriel! You are awakening into a New Kingdom.” [2/8/99] Your composition of dense matter is being infiltrated by the energies of light, and you’ll begin remembering your “life” in the non-physical realms as well as on earth. So doing, you’ll come to see death not as an ending but as a change, not as a hard wall but as a soft landing into a new type of being. Anyone who can speak to you about this authentically – not only channels of spiritual messages, but also people who have undergone NDEs and have “lived” to tell you of their experiences – are conveying the same message: don’t fear

death anymore because it’s simply the beginning of what’s called spirit, and it’s a wonderment. Even though spiritual guides have no mouth, they have voice; though no brain, they have sensibility; and though no brain cells, they have thoughts. They’re urging us to awaken to our spiritual, eternal nature. They are explaining that we and they are interchangeable, only that they’ve been transformed by the gateway called death into a softer and more delicate energy. They are assuring us that upon our own deaths, they will greet us as always, and then continue to keep trading places, if chosen, in the next round of births, on and on until everyone’s reunited. Above all, the spiritual guides are recommending that we talk about death from now on with lightheartedness, considering it an enjoyable passage home! NEPTUNE: CONFUSION, DEPRESSION, OVER-EMOTIONALITY, FOGGINESS Negative descriptions of Neptune usually mention confusion, gullibility, spaciness, deception, anxiety, and over-emotionality. Here are some other "takes" on the difficult Neptunian aspects, keeping in mind that positive Neptune often leads to union with spirit: About confusion, showing it as part of transition and growth: Being confused is part of growing. It’s the stage where we can’t understand or see the whole picture. Distressed, we poke around in a fog and grope for a toehold, longing for stability, comfort, and knowing. But confusion is actually what’s paving the way towards new clarity because it brings the possibility of change. No matter what the confusion is about – identity, for instance – it can exist only for a brief time because it’s merely a transition stage. It’s the period between an old form’s uselessness and a new form’s emergence. Confusion is the mainstay of change, evolution and new vision. You’ll stay in it until you’re filled to the gills with the experience; then you’ll push away and move on. Every time you wrestle with your place in the world, your confrontation with it, or the purpose and meaning of your efforts, it means that your innermost self is intersecting with life. If confusion is produced in this process, it means you are becoming aware of what’s wanted and what is not. Just by living, your desires fluctuate and your efforts adjust. So don’t worry if some of your efforts fail or you get unwanted results. These are simply the by-products of your changing desires on the journey forward. About confusion, of identity, boundaries, and clashing goals: Often, people don’t give enough thought to the difference between their own goals and those of the group’s. Instead, they stay cautious in trying to fit their needs into whatever they feel is society’s. This results in much confusion –

squeezing the proverbial personal square peg into the world’s round holes – and excessive caution regarding being willing to express the creative individuality that was the very basis of choosing this particular life. And so, the basic quandary: who am I really? What am I supposed to do to be myself? Why, when time after time I’ve done what’s expected of me, do I feel so out-of-sorts? Deeper confusion regarding one’s clashing with other people can be resolved by understanding the cross-purposes between your own quest and direction towards a chosen goal, and theirs. When neither can fully see each other’s goals and path, an abrasion unintentionally occurs. To avoid this, you can honor another’s path as best as you can discern it, studying their choices and why they make them, even if such choices – valid to them – will lead them away from your own goals. But you must not let their choices deter nor limit your own! Such a strategy will allow you to feel both compassion and understanding (that is, wisdom and even love) while remaining true to your own needs. It will also reveal that people often choose directions that are safer or riskier than another’s – thus, instantly at cross-purposes – which need not create bad feelings between each of them. About confusion of choice and goals, offering discernment: To come to a decision, examine each possibility: will it provide challenge? What is its potential in terms of your soul’s goals? However, if your soul’s true goals have gone unexamined, you face a dilemma: if unclear, fuzzy, indistinguishable from another’s or from the world’s at large, you won’t be able to forge a path ahead. To develop distinct goals, only your own heart’s desires matter. In order to truly know and evaluate these, form them clearly in your mind and make a list. Automatically, such a list will define your quest by showing what path will take you towards your goals or away. You will have solved your dilemma. Of course, after that you’ll have to act on them. In regard to choice, it’s easy when there’s clarity but hard when there’s muddled emotions. But if you keep your heart open, every choice automatically will be correct. If choice is made through an open heart full of compassion, it can’t possibly be wrong. About self versus others, showing oneness within multiplicity: If you let yourself expand by playing with who you are, and then let your connections expand until you can see the true world-wide-web oneness, you’ll find that your concepts of both selfhood and of union start thriving. You’ll see yourself instead as a multidimensional self, truly part of all there is. Any pangs of confusion that were built into the notion of personal boundaries will dissolve, and the new realization will bring you peace. About stagnation versus flowing, and the condition of being alive: Those who want to feel alive must find their steering wheel and head in life’s direction. What exactly is Life? It’s whatever feels vital and gives joy, whatever makes one feel alive. It’s not just some fluke; it’s a condition, a flow of energy that’s like a wave pushing something into being. In the onrush of such power, everything else is excused.

Its opposite is powerlessness – a state of stagnation, a pooling of energy where there is no flow. That’s when one’s spirit is dampened and one feels un-alive. In such a state, nothing is moving ahead and everything just swirls around and around; it’s a morass that’s difficult to remain in because, with almost no forward motion, there’s almost no sense of being alive. When in it, one must create despite all obstacles. One must discern one’s emotions as one’s obstacles, and then deliberately set them aside from one’s goals and actions. In the simplest terms, emotions drag whereas goals stir, and actions complete. So just follow through with these steps when you find yourself depressed and confused. About over-emotionality versus creativity, showing the role of pain: Be aware that you’ll never get into life through emotions, only through activity. So whenever you are boggled — by thoughts, emotions, feelings — overcome it by creative activity. That’s the only way to open the dam and begin the flow again. That’s the answer and solution to depression. Force the activity, and the inspiration will flow better. Such new energy, now flowing and inspired, will grow and enhance itself, and even more new energy will surge upwards from this until life is a gusher once again. To gain even more insight into the dark and difficult emotions, begin to see them as the necessary juice of creativity. Little creativity ever comes from the bright emotions of elation; much more comes through pain and struggle, followed then (in its normal sequence) by elation. Elation is a by-product of the creative achievement that’s born of human struggle. That’s why some people choose a painful agenda – it’s the best way to create a productive life. Artistic production isn’t conceived in the rat-race but in the artist’s inner distress; all true artists come to their craft through this route, this method. One’s artistry grows from one’s hurts and wounds, and by so doing, gives voice to many through this path. Furthermore, when you speak candidly of your pain and struggle, you are expressing truth that in turn becomes the flowing outlet of your most potent life-power. About difficult Neptune aspects, revealing their spiritual purpose: For a spiritual seeker, the true purpose of all hard Neptune aspects is to broaden the frequency (wave-length) whereby spiritual energy can be received. "Don't worry about the upcoming progressed Moon opposite Neptune — the clarity will increase though logic may be temporarily eclipsed. It's OK — you'll simply be guided through it." [1/20/97] "When transiting Neptune opposes your Moon, you'll have a hard time figuring out the boundary (division) between us and self — but you'll get past that, and resume knowing who you are versus who we are. (Sending much love and XXX). It's okay, you won't 'lose it (go nuts).' Your reception will be stepped up. That's the work of a true Voice (Channel): total reception, no interference. It'll be fun, we promise." [2/10/97] URANUS: UPSETS, DISRUPTION, SUDDEN LOSSES, DRASTIC CHANGE

Hard aspects to Uranus are often described by words such as: shocked, upset, disrupted. Keeping in mind the positive meaning of Uranus as blasting us free from crystallized forms, perhaps these messages can offer a new look at them: About turmoil and instability, giving right attitude during the experience: Whenever you find yourself in emotional turmoil, figure things out by backtracking to a time when you felt centered, serene and whole. That way, light can re-enter the turmoil to banish the fog, renew your hope, keep things well, and restore your energy so that you can press forward. The current sense of precarious insecurity and lack is actually given as a new task: to gain detachment from possessions while encouraging independence in career. It has entered your consciousness in order to stimulate thoughts about the mandate to spend your effort and energy attentively and abundantly. Meanwhile, rest assured that there’ll be lots of spiritual help. If you are able to walk through this minefield while maintaining a calm viewpoint, you’ll be able to realize that you chose a challenging path that demands rigid discipline but will impart enlightenment and strength at its completion. The rigid discipline mentioned requires an ability to see shifting sands and blowing winds as flux, movement, awakening and growth instead of as trouble. It requires that you maintain the viewpoint that this period isn’t hardship or danger but challenge, and isn’t gloom, dilemma or drain but thrill. SATURN: THE "OLD DEVIL," THE KARMIC TASKMASTER, DELAY, RESTRICTION, FEAR, DEPRESSION Saturn goes right to the heart of negativity, doesn’t it? It evokes frustration, blockage, pain, worry and fear. Bearing in mind that it also alludes to structure and groundedness, here are some new ways to see it: About suffering, gloom and darkness, offering a simple way to reverse them: Dark emotions such as confusion, doubt, or worry prevent the vision that would allow you to project yourself forward. Once clarity is restored and darkness dissolved by light, you can once again see where to proceed. Clear seeing dissipates worry in a flash. Bear in mind that everything negative that you’re enduring – grief, complaints, fears, questioning, and so forth – is being manifested because you’ve desired such an experience. You’re not suffering what you think you are! That may be a new concept to consider. Some people use gloom to cope. It takes a great deal of gloomy tribulations before one’s creative energy is warped beyond help. As long as you don’t dwell in it, and can fairly quickly move back into lighter or clearer space, holding onto a cosmic perspective all the while, the gloom doesn’t get weighted down. As merely momentary thought, the drain never forms a heavy reality but is just a passing thing. Eventually the time will come when the crisis is past, the wide mood swings end, and your heart’s sunshine awakens and beckons once more. Meantime, you can alleviate the heavy mood eruptions before then by regarding this task as

your test du jour: to promote the successful demise of Gloomy Heart Syndrome. So even this part of the current struggle becomes your food for growth. The simple truth is that gloom exists when emotions are lowered by fears, while sunshine returns when emotions are raised by hope. “Abide in hope, not fear, and gloom will run for cover.” [6/21/98] For transiting Neptune squaring Saturn in Taurus, often an aspect of depression and failure, uncovering the soul purpose for creating such: Behind this experience lies a prior soul choice: to create the greatest contrast possible to illustrate an old and central fear – of loss, lack, penury. In past lives, this old fear has often led to your death through hunger and such. You’ve always kept it alive so that you can face it and thus overcome frustration. About hard work and lack of support, and its deeper purpose: Lately, you’ve felt that your soul choice for your current life is too demanding and difficult, and thus unwise. However, from the spiritual perspective it’s bold, brave and uncompromising. Any life lived with a strong inner code of belief is hard and deterring, requiring an effort that most won’t make. So look as your choice not as stupid but as strong, not as shaky but as challenging, and not as stubborn but as one-pointed. More than any other option – material or emotional – your choice was to grow, and now is the time a huge spurt is speeding it up… that’s why things feel so shaky. Your reward can be the simultaneous strengthening of neglected areas such as emotional and financial underpinnings. About despair about obstacles, reflected against the real definition of life: In every successful experience there is some failure, and in every despairing period there is some joy. Nothing’s ever fully black or white; it’s always shadings of gray illustrating life’s complexities and paradoxes. Whether you’ve found yourself filled with sadness while trying to make life meaningful and joyous, or surprised by a thrilling moment of ecstasy wrenched from some wounding blight, the realization is the same: it’s all one path. Life – both the hurt and the wonder, the thrill and the pain, the ecstasy and the agony – is in essence one effort, one creation, one expression. It’s a force that rushes in and sweeps ahead of its creation all that’s both good and bad, true and false. Life is all that is. No other way can express the life-force, which by its nature is both hard and soft. So you can’t choose just one thing or another; that kind of choice is an empty search with an empty result. It’s not life; it’s artifice. It’s phony, artificial, doctored up, and scripted. Real life has all, not some, of it – not just the stuff you would choose to keep instead of to eliminate. To feel alive is to feel it all. True, the hard stuff is part of life (as is the softness). Hardness is located wherever your work is to grow and improve. It’s a stopover on the path forward, but it’s where everything seems futile, blocked, not flowing. It’s the point of standstill, the boulder that must be surmounted, and it demands a solution involving movement.

If you find and move towards your inner light, all will be well and you’ll prevail. Since you are made of the strongest stuff in the universe – spirit! – nothing can stand up to your defiance without surrendering back into its fundamental nature. If you realize that you’re the best part of existence – holy, divinely diamond-dusted spirit – you can be as hard and brilliant as that, but also as glowing and pure. Spirit is your innermost essence. About frustration and dissatisfaction, showing it as a soul tool with an unfailing antidote: Don't be sidetracked into frustration by the perceived gap between your ideal and your present circumstances. Instead, just view the gap as the remaining road to travel. To have some, but not all, of your heart's desires yet is not hardship; it’s life. It’s motivation, will, desire. It’s the stuff from which creation will flow. Just keep traveling toward the ideal, but meanwhile try living in the place of joy while you move forward. Discard the place of stress, and you’ll sleep better, and know more calm. It’s not that your pain is unreal, or that it’s not challenging. It’s only that you chose it, built it into your world along with everything else you’re creating. It’s not an accident. Creating a completely peaceful personality leading to quietude instead of challenge wasn’t part of your original choice. Once you grasp that, you can truly find freedom; once you see that you’ll always create challenge, there’s nowhere else to run to for escape. But no escape doesn’t mean no joy. On the soul level, the challenge was to use dissatisfaction for constant growth, finding in the lack of peace not turmoil but always progress. Just by seeing this equation as your own choice can help to regain peace, which in turn is also a big part of your innermost choice: Through dissatisfaction to peace — not once in life, but again and again. You can choose what degree of dissatisfaction to create, and from which particulars. With that result, you can then find how to rediscover satisfaction (peace). This solution will always leave your free choice intact. "For pain comes from resistance, and glory from flexible surrender." [4/13/99] About hard times, as a challenge to use conscious choice: Everyone has a program, or agenda, that we come to earth to carry out. As it unfolds, there’ll be periods of gain and abundance, and periods of shortage and scarcity. Nevertheless, the program always moves forward. The low periods are built into the program in order to push the soul to its maximum effort, which is called growth. Since these tight times propel the person forward, periods of such hardship are completely necessary. Everyone on earth has such moments, and nobody escapes. That’s because earth, by its very nature and function, is a place of learning. Earth experiences are designed for such a learning process, and everyone learns and grows exactly in this fashion. But you can master a trick to negotiate such patches successfully. The patches of hardship always contain a fork in the road that can be

described as Fear versus Faith. When you reach such a patch, if you take the branch of Fear, the sky darkens, everything takes on the colors of depression and looks bleak, and you feel suffering. But if you choose the branch of Faith, the sky brightens, you begin to see a sunnier time up ahead, and you feel the joy and happiness of expectation. It's really that simple. To grow, make the choice. To revive hope, make the right decision. “Growth comes with every positive effort in forward outlook; stagnation, with every negative look backward." [2/24/99] MARS: ANGER, AGGRESSION, DEMANDS, PUSHINESS Whereas we know that positive Martian aspects reflect drive, motivation and assertiveness, what can possibly be shown as the bright side of conflict? About anger and divisiveness, shown as a false and undeveloped view of reality: If you are angry, it should be directed as yourself. Since you can’t change the situation, you must deal with its frustrations. You’re the one who has lost the place within yourself where and when you’re at peace The whole notion of conflict is a false one. The truth is that there’s only a dividing of the self until all its components can be completely known and understood. Although at the present time there is no such concept, eventually the world will see itself as one. At that time, there’ll be a singularity of identity. Right now, from a higher perspective it’s as though many separate selves are warring within their larger whole. That’s because people still struggle with the idea of incompleteness, division, and separation from their spiritual awareness. This allows phrases to exist in your languages such as apartheid, disunification, you versus me, and an “empty life.” Nor is this a “shame,” because it’s just the required stage that happens before reaching full awakening, true unity, the understanding of all-that-is Oneness.

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Once in awhile on other occasions, in response to my own or a client's predicaments, some material was offered that pertained to astrology (or the stars) in general, or to specific planets and signs. The material invariably gave a different perspective on the astrological references than any I’d encountered in my studies, and as a consequence, changed my entire outlook about what was being experienced or undertaken. Since my re-education by spirit, I've been able to apply these, and the afore-mentioned concepts, to my personal struggles and to my clients' issues. About right work:

The ultimate goal you’re seeking isn’t a material one; it incorporates the wisdom and knowledge to guide others to make their spiritual connection. Nurture the goal of inner peace and fulfillment of spiritual values. Write and speak about such values in general, and don’t box yourself in under specific pathways named Tarot, astrology, or metaphysics. Create your ideas in this fashion and things will work out. About Node in Libra: Rather than marriage per se, this configuration speaks of love. Keep offering love until you reach a blockage or the offer is weakened, then search some more for a different way to give it, and another receptacle for it. About Sagittarius: As is your nature, keep your eye on the target and aim towards joy, even ecstasy. As a child of spirit, you are the physical vessel into which is funneled spiritual creativity. You are the cup, projectile, and fountain of spirit. About The Age of Aquarius, and Pluto in Sagittarius: Like a bugle call, a signal is sounding the beginning of the Age of Aquarius, a time when the world can realize its next great ideal. By working in tandem with many, people can develop a clear focus of new values complete with a new message of their parameters. About Venus in Sagittarius 12th House: Avoid letting troubling thoughts overtake your spirit because you’ll just lose your joy further and land in murky waters. Having a vacillating temperament means alternating between upbeat, bubbly enthusiasm and a darker, more malignant aura. You know you’d rather stay uninterruptedly in the much-preferred former state, and you now have the gift to do so… but it will take constant conscious effort. Such a vacillating temperament was a choice so you could clearly see the dual poles of human experience. This configuration wasn’t a punishment but a wonderful chance to know real human pain as well as to see real spiritual light. Since you can’t have one without the other, you chose both, so you might as well find the way to enjoy both. About Capricorn: If you goal is inner peace, as Capricorn you can use everything as grist for your journey there. As you progress, release your fear… even though remaining protective and cautious in good Capricorn fashion would represent smart business sense. About Taurus, Pisces, Libra, and Jupiter: If you find you continually need success in worldly arenas as much as you do finding your peace, then take your bull by its horns (Taurus) and force matters onwards. This will mean the utmost commitment to your goal, risking security

against creativity, staking material assets (Taurus) against dreams (Pisces) without waiting upon partners (Libra) to pave your way. It means demanding a pay-off from the universe for the bold and dramatic risk seen within your creative effort. Only by chancing what feels like a do-or-die risk will you evoke what you need: a big enough change to overcome the immense block you’ve chosen to place on your path. Only by putting your money where your heart is represents sufficient motivation. Any other way would represent a safe but inconsequential risk. However, keep in mind that you’ve left choice as the central issue by providing the equally viable option that represents safety, prosperity, and constant protection (Jupiter). So choice alone, and not need, is the task. Don’t you agree that it’s a clever strategy – to make a choice consciously, or not at all? About natal cardinal t-square to Sun by Saturn and Neptune, triggered by transits of Saturn and Uranus: This person has come to earth this time to prove a lesson to himself beyond all shadow of doubt: that under the worst of hardships, he can prevail and triumph. He hasn’t chosen hardships such as bodily harm, but hardships such as deep emotional fears… Such a life is a hard choice, but an empowering one. Each fray, each close call, each near-ruin, allows him to rise from the ashes and triumph yet again. After a hundred or so years of doing this, he’ll finally believe in himself over all obstacles, over all difficulties, over all embarrassments, and over all hardships. Nothing then can ever remove his power. No one else can ever block or hurt or undermine his strength. No lion's attack could ever be fiercer than this test. It will be a lifetime of great power but great testing… His spiritual guides continue to watch his progress in hopes of greater and greater enlightenment amidst his efforts, and seeing, in fact, that such clarity is appearing. While it may not be obvious to those around him yet, he has started to realize that others can’t be trusted, and to appreciate his own internal strengths. Therefore, the great abyss of his life can be bridged with the lumber of his own abilities to tackle and survive all obstructions, dilemmas or disappointments. This lumber can be piled together to make a structure upon which he can rely, and then climb. Continuing this analogy to make this viewpoint even more graphic, he has found that he can’t feel secure in his climb when he tries to put a hand upon the shoulder of a fellow climber because that shoulder slips away and he loses balance and tumbles, or feels overturned. Then he must re-climb just to resume at the point where he lost balance, and this wastes time from his life. So a realization is awakening: that only through his own efforts – by his own hands or labor rather than depending upon fellow humans – must his structure be erected; and it must be built in such a manner as to aim at his true goal which is, and always has been, not wealth but independence. This goal is his true life's work. Independence is still confused in his thinking with money as though they are equal when in fact they are not. But eventually this too will gain clarification. Meantime, observe him erect a temple to his independence, a structure or building that becomes his bridge to a genuine future. About Transiting Pluto, ruler of H7 through H7, squaring Node; transiting Neptune conjunct MC; transiting Mars conjunct Uranus (this client felt manipulated and deceived by a mentor, and needed to confront such):

You should feel good that you’ve taught him a lesson of real insight and informed awareness. He misread you (an advanced soul) as a weak, unpredictable, and even shallow newcomer to the game. The realization of his faulty understanding of a person who’d come into his presence has been a comeuppance; to face his pride and hubris, an embarrassment. Since his task remains growth and self-discovery, he sees he must do more internal work in order to align his inner self within this goal, and so he shall. Like a master smacking the disciple upside the head in order to bring one's attention to the flaw within, such comeuppance in the form of feelings of humiliation is often needed when there is great pride. You need not feel ashamed nor regret your part. Your work was to handle inappropriate attention and diversionary tactics with aplomb while attending to your true, real goal… and so you’ve done. In effect, you’ve been a hand of a divine principle, a medium for universal realization, the mode by which God has made known His/Her presence within the group of people this disciple would like to encounter and heal. He’s been put on notice that he must do so from now on with attention, with humility, and with appropriate behavior, not knowing whom among his followers will be a wisdom teacher. Thus your work from the perspective of being a divine instrument is complete, and if you wish to continue further, it will be by and through friendship only; there’s not much more for you to learn from him. So now you may move onward, leaving closeness and hugs in your wake for this dear soul who remains blessed and loved by spirit even as he stumbles along, for he’ll recover and be stronger and do more and better work hereafter. Sometimes when an initiate finds himself held up to another, that’s the only way to proceed because the role starts to feel as awkward as wearing a costume at a ball — but the experience has served its purpose well.

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Although these snippets certainly aren’t comprehensive, it's my hope that, in presenting this material (some of it quite personal), the reader will begin to see the greater purpose within the selection of difficult aspects, and also the choice always available to us in maneuvering through any pattern. In conclusion, I've asked The B.O.L.W. for a specific message about the five "hard" planets: "What can be given for us regarding hard aspects?" From the spiritual perspective, the “aspects” of astrology are approached hesitantly because conveying such a perspective on patterns of energy will doubtlessly result in distortion and thus some misinterpretation. With that in mind, here is some information: Envision a field of rocks. If you were told that you must make your way from one end of it to another, would you complain that the rocks were directed towards your hurt? Would you see them as deliberate hardships meant to prevent you from this or that, or would you merely see them as lying there, ahead, to be overcome or circumvented. That is, as neutral?

"Well, that is how we see the fields of energetic patterns from here. We do not see issues. Nor punishments. Nor troubles. Nor any other emotional-laden words. We simply see a certain type of energy field 'ahead.' And it must be dealt with, without fear or other trepidation, but with clarity and aplomb. If you face the difficulty it must done as mere choice, mere acknowledgement of a certain passage. Belay your fears and your dramatic expectations. Simply smile, and weigh, and plan, and move forth. "Now, for Saturn, the field of energy is rocky, hard, unyielding, unpliable. It manifests as waves to be swum through, defied. You cannot avoid them, for they are large and clear. You can, however, navigate them successfully with little damage and much strengthening of purpose and/or character. "For another 'planet,' Mars, you will face damagingly hot waves, able to prevent access (because of their severity) or singeing one as one passes through. Nevertheless, these energies are rather easily navigated, being neither hard nor unyielding, merely vaporizing or burning. You can either turn into an emulsion, or you can step up your speed to get past quickly. "Pluto. Deeper than you expect. Pulling inward, like an undertow. The grave concern is sinking too quickly down into your emotional body, or into your fears. The quicksand nature is often mistaken, since the surface appears calm. So there is the need to probe cautiously as you move forward, to watch for pools of deeper pits that will suck you under. As you go along, your probing will enrich your awareness, and your deliberation will provide the wisdom of caution to your effort. There is no hurry to move through this. The effort is to remain steadfast, careful, proceeding with great probity, and not to fall away or flee when the self sinks in occasionally. "Uranus. Here we have a measure of alacrity, the opposite of cautious Pluto and unyielding Saturn. We have energy that enjoys its dance, but will not slow or stop for anything. This dancing and joyful energy cares not a whit for what it crashes into, mows over, distorts and disrupts as it passes. It simply must be active. So Uranus has only to exist, and will offend most entrenched structures. This cannot be changed, nor should it. For the dancing sway of energy that is symbolized here, brings into any fixity the welcome ability for newness and the off-putting habit of destruction. Through the swathe comes more light, until that too is structured into fixity. Uranus is a pilot driving blind, but following an inner light forward. "Neptune. Here we have little in the way of light (as that is understood), but more in the way of depth. A pattern of reinforcement of the beauty of that which has no visible light, but has only its own dark inner light. Here we have inexorable movement down, deep into the core of matter, so deep that matter's truth must eventually be known. The movement is as though through molasses because there is so much density to obstruct its path. It will make its way deep until it reaches a realm where matter and non-matter can no longer be defined, separated, observed. Thus, Neptune is the pathfinder into the depths, but not the depth itself. "And so we have some new understanding. But we apologize for our limitation in conveying to you any greater clarity than what we have given. As we have said, it is very hard to speak of energy from the perspective of those in material being.

"Blessings." (8/8/00)

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A final piece of guidance from The Brotherhood of Light Workers: "Worries bring hardships, and gaiety brings peace. We can therefore say this unequivocally: be thou at peace and all beauty will follow. Focus upon its creation, the making of wonderment. [1/14/97] In your future you can alter your world by a thought, and you will learn how, and see this as a joyful miracle. In your future you will find the means to be a magician of joy, a creator of bliss while still alive." [9/12/97]

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The Power of Choice

"The most rejuvenating idea of all, and the greatest step to any true illumination, is the realization that your exterior life springs from the invisible world of your reality through your conscious thoughts and beliefs, for then you realize

the power of your individuality and identity. You are immediately presented with choices. You can no longer see yourself as a victim of circumstances." — Seth (Jane Roberts)

COPYRIGHT December 2000\1, Judi Thomases.

All rights reserved. Permission required for reprinting.